Rank Brain was Google’s answer to bringing the human element into their search engine queries. With the ever-changing way people search out information, using an artificial intelligence machine to manage searches that were never before included, is allowing Google to get closer to their goal of returning the best search results. Considering the seemingly small 15% of searches never before included translates to more that 500 million searches daily, this system is nothing to scuff at!

So in a post Rank Brain world, what will allow for better search rankings to generate traffic and sales? You will need to learn about long-tail keywords and understand how consumers come to their final buying decision. Long-tail keywords are descriptive phrases of four or more keywords that are highly specific. There are many free tools to help you generate them like longtailgenerator.com or keywordtool.io and, if your long-tail keywords address the needs of the person searching, it will most likely rank well on Google. The concept is that consumers use a specific search phrase when they are ready to make their final purchase decision and you want every opportunity to capture this buyer using your long-tail keywords.

For example, users will begin their search in general terms like “new york hotels” but there is great competition faced with larger sites like Expedia or Travelocity and brand sites like Marriott or Hilton who have invested vast amounts of money to get first search results. So keeping in mind Google’s Rank Brain, using long-tail keywords will mean you use more specific search phrases like “hotels near times square new york”. This will help increase search traffic to your site and lead to your ultimate goal of more sales.

To optimize your site pages you will need quality links to those long-tail keywords that will help increase your ranking and send traffic your way. User Generated Content (USG) and social sharing are ideal for adding more content to pages because you touch on variations in keyword phrases. Buyers will seek out their friends for suggestions or opinions and, when they like or have conversations about your product on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest or Google+, you would be generating traffic to your site.

The end game is to make a profit so do your thorough research to find those long-tail keywords that make it all work for you.